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We seem to be the nation of the independent personality disorder. We want to do things Our Way. Asking for help is a sign of weakness, rather one of a collaborative spirit. But sometimes a quick call for help is all we need. I have the good fortune of having a 24/7 confidential voice mailbox. [...]

When I Google “Idea Horse” nothing much shows up. The first hit is the Ideal Horse in Aristotle’s concepts of the Ideal-Fill-in-the-Blank. When I search for The Monkey Mind and The Idea Horse, I begin to find small mentions. […]

Say “Hello, monkey.” Whatever the chatter is — no matter how harsh, silly, irrelevant or distracting — you must learn how to handle the monkey mind: that endless chatter of fear, restlessness, distraction and other voices in our heads that Buddha described as monkeys clamoring for our attention. If you hate the monkey mind , [...]

Why wait for Jan. 1 to try to change? Change comes in increments. And it usually takes at least 90 days of consistency for the brain to “catch up” to the deeper levels of change. So why not try something today that you were thinking of starting on Tuesday? […]

I had a remarkable exchange recently with a Canadian woman who bid on one of my Noble Jizo’s during Shambhala Sun’s auction, Bidding for Good. It made me wonder what each of us is giving birth to at the present moment… and what may be gestating within us that would like to be born. [...]

I am praying for peace as I write this, hoping that we aren’t too lazy and distracted to go up against the National Rifle Association as we mourn our country’s latest victims of gun violence. When I started writing these pieces, I was advised that I should not write about political issues. Jizo & Chibi, [...]

Now and then I have a series of emails with someone who has been shopping or breathing in circles on the Jizo & Chibi website. Sometimes they write about a technical problem or they have a question about a piece of jewelry. With Julie, our communication began on Etsy. She liked my work and I [...]

I always plan to meditate in the morning before going onto my phone, laptop or iPad. That way, I find the middle before being pulled in any of the other four directions. I once heard someone say that they had never met a day that could not start 20 minutes earlier — which is to [...]

Who is Jizo? Or first, what is cognition? Or maybe the first question is, what is mindfulness? Most of us want to cut to the chase. We want results and we want them now. When we can’t get what we want, we get anxious, depressed, angry. And if we get there, we want to Stay [...]

First, I wonder if anyone is reading this. I just spent half an hour Googling “Does Anyone Read My Blog?” and wandering around inside WordPress trying to find the stats page. I couldn’t. Next week, I will talk with my tech goddess and she will teach me. I am sure someone has figured out how [...]